As a regular visitor of YouTube it saddens me to hear a large proportion of music videos will not be available to watch in the UK on the site for the foreseeable future due to an ongoing dispute between the sites owners and the PRS (Performing Rights Society). Apparently the issue comes down to the amount the PRS want for a video being shown on the website being greater than the revenue YouTube can generate from ads when showing the video. Hopefully an agreement will be made shortly but in the meantime UK users will be met with a message stating they are unable to view the content at present.
The PRS, along with TV licensing, is one of those groups that I'm surprised are allowed to exist in their current guise within the modern day world. If we can focus on the subject of TV licensing briefly, I have a television which I use for watching DVD movies and Sky channels only. Unfortunately as it is physically capable of receiving BBC channels I am obliged to pay a yearly fee that goes directly to the BBC. It does however seem absurd that a company can choose to broadcast an unencrypted signal to my house without my permission and then have the audacity to bill me for it.
Whilst I see a need for such a group as the PRS my disappointment over the YouTube issue is increased as it seems they have let their power get the better of them lately. I hear whispers of charges being issued to community centres and football clubs for traditional songs being sung on the premises simply because they had been recently covered by modern artists. As the BBC is funded by the TV license fee so the very idea that workplaces with radios should hold a public entertainment license just doesn't sit right with me as everybody has the right to listen to it at no additional charge. To me it seems the PRS potentially endangers commercial radio with this attitude as advertising revenue relies upon viewing figures that will certainly drop if workplaces are forced to switch off their radios to avoid a fine/fee.
In the past I have reviewed a site called Vimeo (www.vimeo.com) which offers an extremely high quality sound and video quality with more than 13,000 videos updated daily. I have tended to find the emphasis on Vimeo being unique and creative content and while there are some truly fantastic videos to be found on their site the fact that commercial videos aren't allowed means it cannot be considered a viable replacement for YouTube.
Another video streaming site of note is Daily Motion (www.dailymotion.com) is certainly a viable alternative and was registered about the same time as YouTube. Alexa currently ranks Daily Motion at 113th on its listing of top sites online with YouTube at 3. Also, the amount of videos hosted is not as awe-inspiring but with around 20,000 new videos (including plenty of HD and official content) being uploaded daily it is certainly growing.
The PRS, along with TV licensing, is one of those groups that I'm surprised are allowed to exist in their current guise within the modern day world. If we can focus on the subject of TV licensing briefly, I have a television which I use for watching DVD movies and Sky channels only. Unfortunately as it is physically capable of receiving BBC channels I am obliged to pay a yearly fee that goes directly to the BBC. It does however seem absurd that a company can choose to broadcast an unencrypted signal to my house without my permission and then have the audacity to bill me for it.
Whilst I see a need for such a group as the PRS my disappointment over the YouTube issue is increased as it seems they have let their power get the better of them lately. I hear whispers of charges being issued to community centres and football clubs for traditional songs being sung on the premises simply because they had been recently covered by modern artists. As the BBC is funded by the TV license fee so the very idea that workplaces with radios should hold a public entertainment license just doesn't sit right with me as everybody has the right to listen to it at no additional charge. To me it seems the PRS potentially endangers commercial radio with this attitude as advertising revenue relies upon viewing figures that will certainly drop if workplaces are forced to switch off their radios to avoid a fine/fee.
In the past I have reviewed a site called Vimeo (www.vimeo.com) which offers an extremely high quality sound and video quality with more than 13,000 videos updated daily. I have tended to find the emphasis on Vimeo being unique and creative content and while there are some truly fantastic videos to be found on their site the fact that commercial videos aren't allowed means it cannot be considered a viable replacement for YouTube.
Another video streaming site of note is Daily Motion (www.dailymotion.com) is certainly a viable alternative and was registered about the same time as YouTube. Alexa currently ranks Daily Motion at 113th on its listing of top sites online with YouTube at 3. Also, the amount of videos hosted is not as awe-inspiring but with around 20,000 new videos (including plenty of HD and official content) being uploaded daily it is certainly growing.
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